A photo to be identified

On this day

Kellond

My closest Kellond ancestor

One of my 3 x gt grandmothers was a Kellond, Tryphena Kellond. Of course I had 32 great grandparent, so my Kellond ancestry is only a small part of my overall ancestry. Several of my 3x gt grandmothers are nothing more than names to me – I’m not even certain of the dates they lived and in 2 cases I don’t even know their maiden names (as at 16 July 2014). But Tryphena, the last born, lived until 1909 (one of 3 to make it into the C20th and the last-but-one to die) is one of those I know most about, and the only one that anyone I have spoken to remembered meeting.

My great aunt recalled a trip by pony and trap from their home in Stoke Fleming to Stokenham, a journey of about 7 miles, to visit her great grandmother. Tryphena gave her great grandchildren a silver spoon each with their initials. Despite having given birth to 5 children Tryphena had only 3 great grandchildren by the time of her death (aged 86), though 2 more were born, also grandchildren of Florence, her only child to have children, about 20 years after her death. I also know she ran the Post Office in Stokenham, certainly after her husband’s death, and although it was then in his name I believe before, when he was busy making shoes. A small piece in the local newspaper when she retired seems to confirm this. I have visited the 2 villages in which she spent her life quite a number of times – Slapton, where she grew up, and Stokenham, where she lived after her marriage. All this, and having a copy of her will, which she appointed her grandson, my great grandfather, to execute, make me feel I know her and increase my sense of being a member of the “Kellond tribe”.

Sadly, although I have photos of Tryphena’s daughter Florence dating back to the 1880s, I am not aware of any photos of Tryphena.

The Kellond family

Kellond / Kelland is a sufficiently unusual surname that there was (is?) a “Kelland Family” newsletter (I have copies 2 – 13, issued between 1989 and 1994; the Devon County Council website shows the Westcountry Studies Library holds 23 editions, pub 1988 – 1998). However, it is sufficiently common locally in a few areas, including in the South Hams, that I have not tried to trace all (and do not intend to, though I expect I will add more of the South Hams families to my tree who are related or with whom I think I may be able to establish a connection). As so often happens, the same few names were used frequently amongst the Kellond families in Slapton, Stokenham and Sherford etc.; having more of the tree drawn out will help me to see if the assumptions I have made (or borrowed) are reasonable – e.g. is it reasonable to assume that the John who married in Slapton in 1713 was the son of John and Elizabeth of Sherford, or was there one or more other Johns who could have been the one who married in Slapton?

There is also a Kellond Family website with a little info and links and a One Name study has been registered with the Guild of One Name Studies.

See also charts etc. listed on the genealogies page of the Devon GENUKI site (the Michael Stanley who contributed much of this died in 1999).

My line

I show my ancestry back to Nicholas Kellond, b about 1567 in Sherford. I have not attempted to add all of Nicholas’s descendants to my tree, but those that I do have on my tree can be seen in a descendants chart. There is no guarantee that this is accurate. Some of the links are conjecture; in my line the link most in need of evidence is that the John who married Mary Sweetland in Slapton in 1713 was the son of John and Elizabeth of Sherford.

Kellonds – carpenters and builders

My 4 x gt grandfather Robert Kellond was a carpenter, as was his father John and the only brother whose occupation I know, George. I don’t know the occupation of any of my earlier Kellond ancestors. George’s son, also George, emigrated to Canada and did not follow this occupation, instead becoming a shoemaker, whole one of his sons became a bookbinder. However, this seems unusal for the Kellonds, since many other descendants of John were carpenters or more generally builders. Robert’s brother Peter had a son Thomas who also had a son Thomas – both builders, with Thomas senior having moved to Middlesex by 1842. Peter also had a son William who had no less than seven sons, all of whom survived infancy. I have yet to study these and add all of their offspring to my tree, but the impression I get is that nearly all of William’s sons and grandsons were carpenters or builders. Not only this, but Kellonds from Stokenham who are only distantly related* were also builders, and moved to Middlesex around the same time as Thomas. Although William, born in Slapton in 1806, remained in the village all of his life he sold up his buisness in 1868 as it was declining. His sons and Robert’s would have had to have looked elsewhere for work.

It would be interesting to study this more – to see just where the various families were living at the time of the various censuses; do they appear to have kept in touch and maybe worked together? Tryphena’s son in law (James Bartlett Hambling, b 1849 in Stoke Fleming) was a builder too and I would like to see if he appears to have worked with his wife’s cousins.

(* – if the above assumption about the John who marr in 1713 is correct, then William and Samuel, the Stokenham builder who moved to Paddington, were 4th cousins)

The Renovation of Slapton Church

An item appeared in the Western Times on 30 Oct 1863 (p.5, col. 4), in the ‘late district news’ section, regarding the renovation of Slapton Church:

Slapton. – The inhabitants of this parish have
at last been aroused as to the disgraceful state of their
church, the chancel of which has for many years been
dilapidated and the roof patched with straw. The
churchwardens, Messrs. Page and Bastard, have had no
small difficulty in raising the funds, in consequence of the
building belonging to the freeholders whose name is
legoin, and of different opinion as to stumping up their
moiety. This, however, seems to be got over, the old
roof having been replaced by a new one, and otherwise
renovated. The contractors are Messrs. Kelland and
Cause, of Slapton.

I am not sure which Mr. Kellond and which Mr. Cawse were involved here; I hope further research will enable me to find out. When 4xgt grandfather Robert died in September 1863 he was described as ‘retired tradesman’; whilst I like the thought of his last work before he retired being to restore the church in the village where he spent his life, I think it unlikley. As his sons had moved away it was more likely a nephew or cousin.

Who was Mr. Cause? I believe this should be Cawse. It is not a local name, but a Richard Cawse who was born in Modbury married Anna, the youngest sister of Robert Kellond’s wife in 1833. Although of St. Thomas (Exeter) at the time of the marriage, Richard Cawse must have settled in Slapton soon after, possibly straightaway; he was a farming at Dearswell in Slapton parish by the time of the 1841 census and remained so until his retirement in the 1870s. I suspect it was one of his 9 sons who had become a builder and was working with a Kellond.

Emigration

An alternative to moving to the big smoke for work was to emigrate and this is what most of Robert’s sons did. Robert lost 3 of his 8 sons in infancy, but the other 5 all died abroad. Four emigrated to Australia, while his youngest died in New Orleans though it is not clear if he had settled there – he was only in his twenties when he died in 1867, and had clearly been in Devon in 1864, and had been working in London (yes, as a carpenter and joiner) in 1861.

Robert’s daughters didn’t travel so far, though none spent their lives in Slapton. Tryphena stayed closest, moving less than two and a half miles to Stokenham. Hannah’s 9 children were born in Slapton but when she was in her 40s the family moved to Paignton (16 miles away). Tryphosa lived for a while as Robert Pepperell’s wife, and had a child with him born in Slapton, but then left him and moved to Cornwall where she spent most of the rest of her life, being at St. Issey, about 70 miles from Slapton at the time of the 1891 census, though she died not half that distance away, in the Plymouth Reg Dist. Sarah Theresa, possibly the only sister to outlive Tryphena, settled in Tywardreath, Cornwall after her marriage, spending at least 55 years there (about 60 miles from Slapton). The only sister who may have emigrated (further than Cornwall!) is Melinda – I haven’t found any evidence of her after the 1861 census, when she was aged 23.

It must have been odd for Tryphena, growing up as part of a large family, to have her siblings so scattered, especially with her daughter moving to London for over 20 years as well, before returning to the South Hams. At least she had one son who remained with her, till his death 6 months before hers.

On my tree

Most of the information I have put together by my own research. It includes use of the Slapton entries on the IGI which I have not yet checked in the PRs, also Sherford entries from the Kelland family newsletters which I don’t think I have seen for myself; I acknowledge with gratitude the help given by the newsletters in making the research of others available, and express my thanks to June Bennett for producing them and to those who contributed their findings.